New York City turns old phone booths into WiFi hotspots

New York City is planning to repurpose 12,000 old phone booths, and no, they will not be turned into suicide booths.

The city that never sleeps announced plans to turn some of them into digital kiosks earlier this year and now it has stuck WiFi routers in several booths to test the viability of turning them into WiFi hotspots. Six WiFi booths are in Manhattan, two in Brooklyn and one in Queens. WiFi is also coming to some phone booths in Staten Island and the Bronx.

The whole scheme will be funded by advertising companies, so it will come at no cost to the taxpayer. The payphones will not be replaced and they will continue providing New Yorkers with a valuable service – cheap and anonymous drug calls.